I am a researcher in Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Information Retrieval (IR). My research focus is text mining and information retrieval in specific domains.
I am a Full Professor at the Leiden Institute of Advanced Computer Science (LIACS). I am group leader of Text Mining and Retrieval Leiden. I supervise projects that develop and evaluate NLP and IR methods in a diversity of domains. I am work package leader for two H2020 projects and project co-leader of an NWA project.
My group works on novel methods for representation learning, ranking, and information extraction. I have a particular interest in the interconnection between retrieval and large language models (LLMs) and how they can strengthen each other, specifically in conversational seach.
I am active in the NLP and IR communities, holding chairing positions in the large world-wide conferences. I was program co-chair for ECIR 2022 and track chair for TheWebConf 2023. I am senior associate editor for TOIS, program co-chair for SIGIR 2025, and Senior Area Chair for ARR.
I collaborate with public and private partners such as the LUMC, KPN, Albert Heijn, ING, Randstad, ASML, Medstone, Signify, ZetaAlpha, and The Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM). I am also a member of the ICAI lab AI4Oversight.
Vacancies: None at the moment.
Message to prospective PhD students: The Dutch PhD system is position-based. This means you have to apply to advertised positions. When I have positions open, they will be posted here.
Interview on the podcast “Computers don’t byte” about my work: Spotify link.
